Chicken Burrito from Pancho Pistola's

Item Purchased: Chicken Burrito from Pancho Pistola's
Location Purchased: Pancho Pistola's / 700 W. 31st St. / Chicago, IL
Price: $4.95 + tax

Review: After spending all of yesterday on my couch, waiting for my head to explode, I needed some fresh air and a bite to eat. After deliberating for a while, Josh and I decided to head south in our new neighborhood to see what we could find. Though I have been there before, my light-headedness made me demand that we stop here.

Pancho's is a small, but comparably superior Mexican restaurant in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood. When held up to the other pizza joints, liquor stores and the casual dining restaurant, Stages across the street from it, Pancho's looks a bit fancy. I wouldn't call it fancy, but respectable. An immaculately clean neighborhood restaurant that serves authentic Mexican cuisine and grows a little tight on nights when the White Sox play, I prefer to go here on slow afternoons and nights for a strong drink and cheap meal.

There are always plenty of free chips and salsa for you at Pancho's, regardless of whether you are eating or sipping or both. Fresh hot tortillas with two types of salsa are placed on the table for you to fill up on before your meal arrives. To my surprise, I wasn't able to get that many down before my burrito arrived.

The burrito itself was extremely large. I know that it doesn't take much to make a burrito, but when you are paying only $4.95 at a sit-down restaurant, you don't expect to get this much food. This burrito isn't greasy and cheap either. The ingredients are all fresh and the chicken is lightly spiced, grilled and sliced. If my body hadn't been in overdrive yesterday, cleaning the infection out of my system, I probably wouldn't have been able to finish this sizeable and affordable meal.

Pancho's is a neighborhood restaurant that probably belongs in Little Village or Pilsen, judging by its quality food and drink, but I sure am glad it is in my new home of Bridgeport.

Rating: 4.5 / 5